Sixth Form Enterprise – Update 

Our sixth form students would normally attend NESCOT College two days per week to participate in vocational taster sessions. This is a valuable part of their careers and independence curriculum and development. Unfortunately, Covid-19 restrictions prevented students from attending college this year.

However, we were determined come up with a series of activities and projects that would develop key skills and replicate the experience on offer at NESCOT.

Johnson class are very creative and one of the activities they embarked on was tie dye. They put their artistic and practical skills to good use, initially decorating bags and t-shirts and later branching out to face masks. Soon the masks were the talk of the school and students quickly realised that this could be a great enterprise idea. A small business formed, and students used their organisational skills to keep up with the demand for their products. Some gravitated towards the production process of dyeing, drying, ironing and packaging the masks, whilst others were happier marketing – creating a company name and logo. Some naturally moved towards customer service and enjoyed delivering and taking orders.

Business boomed, and as production increased, students had to consider reinvesting their profits, cash flow and the dangers of taking too many orders.

The initial budget of £30 soon grew to an impressive total profit of £239.52, a portion of which was donated to charity and the PTFA; the remainder will be spent on something for Johnson’s tutor room.

Although this was not a replacement for work experience or college taster sessions, it certainly helped develop skills important for college and the world of work.